The Scenario: At this past weekend’s ROH show, a fan exchanged words with the Allure, a heel stable in the Women of Honor division. Allegedly, at one point, Velvet Sky (one-third of the Allure) called the fan a virgin. The fan responded by reminding her that “she has sex with that fat turd Bully Ray.” Five minutes later, security escorts the fan backstage and has him wait. Bully Ray appears and allegedly tells the fan to quit talking down to the Allure. According to the fan, Bully said “Don’t be saying anything you wouldn’t say to your mom, you got it?” The fan claimed he understood and went back to his seat.
Much of the above is how the fan described the incident on Twitter. Luckily, we also have Bully Ray’s response available (see screenshots below). This is an absurd situation and almost beyond belief. I am going to attempt to analyze Bully’s response. The interesting aspect of this scenario is that Bully Ray is SO in the wrong, that the following analysis will ASSUME that the fan’s behavior warranted his removal from the venue. At this point, that is quite the assumption given the available information.
I. His response…”Thanks Bully”
The notion that Bully Ray would use the fan’s cordialness as a testament to Bully’s decorum is insane. Imagine that you are at a professional wrestling show and security has escorted you from your seat to the backstage area without giving you any reason or explanation. After a waiting period, Bully Ray emerges from a back room to discuss an incident with you privately. I would presume that the most common response in such a situation would be to say whatever is required to remove yourself from the situation.
The kicker is that Bully knows how he is perceived. “I handled the situation the exact opposite way most would assume…” In order to combat that presumption, Bully attempts to highlight the fan’s cooperation in an undeniably tense and awkward situation as evidence of his gracefulness. This is insulting to anyone reading his statement and trying to formulate an opinion on the matter.
II. Unfortunately, it wasn’t until after the “fan” was asked to not be “so rude,” did we find out the severity of the vile comments and lewd sexual gestures
In light of the above, what is Bully Ray’s standard for telling security to escort a fan to the backstage area so he can chat with them? You are telling me that this backstage confrontation took place BEFORE discovering how vile and lewd the fan’s actions were?
One way to read this quoted text is that it explains why Bully now believes the fan should have just been ejected from the building. That implies that Bully views his backstage chat with the fan as something less than getting ejected. From Bully’s point of view, the thought process would go something like this: “Instead of ejecting the fan from the venue, I’ll just have security escort him backstage and let me talk some sense into him. That way he can go back to his seat and amend his behavior.”
Again, this is insane. The idea that Bully thinks for even a second that his fireside chat backstage rehabilitating the fan is an appropriate response illustrates how far away we are from any semblance of reasonableness. We can learn more about the situation and debate whether or not the fan should have been ejected from the venue. The notion that what Bully ended up doing with the fan was a reasonable alternative is not up for debate.
III. I live by the motto… “Respectful fans always get what they want…Rude fans always get what they deserve.”
We found Bully Ray’s standard! Rude fans always get what they deserve. That is the standard and it’s a great clue as to why this situation is so alarming.
Bully clearly has significant influence in the ROH product at this point. If he believes that you are acting rudely at an ROH show, he will have security escort you backstage so he can confront you. What? You want to know how “rude” is defined? Oh, don’t worry, you can discuss that with Bully backstage when you are alone with him.
Folks, this is a twisted situation that I have only scratched the surface of at this point. Like I said at the beginning, you could grant that the fan was completely out of line and deserved to be ejected, yet still see that Bully’s way of handling the situation was absurd. I understand that boycotting the ROH product at this point is not particularly brave. But frankly, I want absolutely nothing to do with the ROH product so long as Bully is involved.